LONGMONT -- As of Monday, anyone who included magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition when they pawned their firearms and firearms accessories will no longer be able to reclaim those higher-capacity magazines, according to Rod Brandenburg, a downtown Longmont pawn shop owner.

Brandenburg complained that the new Colorado law prohibiting the sale of higher-capacity ammunition magazines on or after July 1 also will bar him from returning such magazines to the customers who show up at his Grandpa's Pawn and Gun to repay the principal and interest on the loans they got.

"What should we tell our customers?" Brandenburg asked.

Rod Brandenberg, of Grandpa's Pawn, 312 Main St., talks Saturday about the conflicts his business will face with Colorado's new gun laws.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

He said that as of Saturday, his business had "probably between 50 and 100" ammunition magazines that'll be in violation of the 15-round limit.

Brandenburg said he's been able to contact 30 to 40 individuals to warn them that they should come to his 312 Main St. shop and get their ammunition magazines before Monday -- and to bring something else to pawn, if they still cannot pay off the full original loan.

Otherwise, Brandenburg said, the new state law says, "No, you can't have your magazine back."

Under Colorado's pawn shop laws, Brandenburg said, he actually becomes the at-least-temporary owner of items such as firearms once they're pawned, with the previous owner getting the first right of refusal to repurchase the items when the loan comes due. Therefore, under the new magazine-size limits, the pawn shop can no longer "resell" the higher-capacity magazines back to that original owner.

Advertisement

Brandenburg said that amounts to a violation of the contractual agreement between the pawn shop and the customer.

The 15-round limit is arbitrary and 30-round magazines shouldn't be called "high-capacity" magazines because they're standard for AR-15-type rifles, said Brandenburg, a federally licensed firearms dealer.

Brandenburg is critical of much of the package of gun-control measures the Colorado Legislature adopted earlier this year, including a number of laws that already have taken effect since March.

"They're getting too picky with this stuff," he said, adding that "these are feels-good laws. It's silly legislation" that he said he believes violates people's constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Agreeing with Brandenburg was Matthew Wolf, an occasional Grandpa's Pawn and Gun customer who stopped by the shop Saturday afternoon.

Wolf, who said he's considering running as a Libertarian Party candidate for the Colorado House District 11 seat when it's up for election next year -- a district now represented by Longmont Democrat Jonathan Singer -- said the package of gun-control measures adopted by the Legislature this year wasn't "well thought out."

An ammunition magazine's capacity "is not the problem," said Wolf, who target shoots and skeet shoots. He said "the bigger problem" is the mental health of some of the people getting access to firearms.

Brandenburg said he is concerned that he might wind up getting unwanted law enforcement attention, or may be held liable if he inadvertently winds up violating any of the new state laws in his transactions as a firearms dealer and pawn shop owner.

"The most aggravating issue to me is that we have received no training, no instruction" in carrying out the new laws, Brandenburg said.

He said he's been unable to get explanations and advice from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation but hopes he'll be able to get clarifications during a meeting he's having with Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle on Tuesday.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.